


Septicide

by Adverant



Category: Youtube RPF
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Future, Enjoy my illogical AI diagnosis, Genocide, Human hostile takeovers, I have NO medical education, M/M, No lightsabers or anything not like that, The future if it were almost Starwars kind of, Will add tags as I go, Wow I even ramble in tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-05-22 15:13:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6084438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adverant/pseuds/Adverant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark doesn't fight in the human wars, where the same mankind that reached into the depths of space for knowledge now commits genocide out of greed for a planet's wealth and elements. He is only a doctor after all, and though its hard he always finds a way to block out the sounds of death, his only purpose there is to find injured human soldiers from his group and give them medical attention.</p><p>For some reason, today was different... something about those blue eyes seemed so familiar, so human. Too human. Its a chain reaction, and he has no clue what he's started nor exactly whom he brought onto his ship that day. If he thinks he's seen passion burn in someone's eyes, or hate freeze someone's blood, or conflict like that over the choice between love and loyalty... he's seen nothing yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Genocide

**Author's Note:**

> Over much debate with myself, I decided I will no long force myself to rush the chapters to other stories if I'm not passionate about it at that moment. With that thought, brings this story. I want to bring about a story that's not so... "reality TV". Not so homegrown or whatever.
> 
> While the Summary seems to be following Mark, that will not be the case for most of this story. I will TRY to update every week, if not then once a month. The chapters will be long.
> 
> The Theme Song for this one is Lorde's cover of "Everbody Wants To Rule The World".
> 
> I came up with the beginning to this story, and this story in general, while listening to that song. As you can imagine much of the way the song sounds is accurate to what would be going through the character's mind as we follow them. If you look past the lyrics at first anyway.
> 
> But without further ado I present to you Chapter 1, "Genocide"

He could feel pressure in his face, his ears rang from the booming sounds through a once deathly silent night, thundering through his ear canal and sending tremors down his spine as he struggled to keep his footing. He stumbled through the night, clutching tightly to the dear thing in his arms, so fragile was it and he feared if they found him they'd break it. He'd long since stopped worrying about his own life, he knew the second they found him it would all be over, he would be dead. He's played enough horror games to know as much.

His eyelids burned and he coughed on the dust that had risen from the ground in plumes, clouds of the debris from their paths of destruction. He could barely see his hand stretched out in front of him through the metal particle dusts and material smog, the tiny silver specks digging into his fragile skin while he pushed on. He wasn't sure he'd find it in time, he wasn't sure how much farther he could go protecting this thing, a slight disturbance could destroy it entirely.

Then he remembered what she'd said to him moments prior, he was unknowing that they would come, but he understood now that she had known all along that this was to be, hence why he was staggering along through the tornado of flesh-ripping dust as they destroyed his homeland. She'd told him to run immediately, he'd only acted selfishly by lying thinking that he'd be satisfying her mania, only to find himself in the middle of a radioactive wargrounds.

He could barely see the faint glow ahead carved into a dark silhouette, his destination and the last mission of his life he was sure, as he approached it a metallic clank and creak sounded behind him. He nearly froze where he stood, his toe catching on his heal as he started a sprint towards the silhouette, and time seemed to slow for far too long as a sound like gunshot split the night. An intense buzzing filled his brain, white noise filling his ears causing him to scream in pain as an ache like nothing he'd ever known split his mind.

He shrieked and held his head and he writhed on the ground, the thing tucked under his arm sliding and rolling along the ground catching his attention, and he scrambled towards it with a whimper on his lips as he felt something warm and smelling thickly of iron running out his nose and down his upper lip. His blunt nails clicked off the thing in his desperate grab for it, and he was quick to wrap slender fingers around its pulsing surface and pull it close, curling in on the thing to protect it as he noticed a shadow growing over him.

He heard something slice through the air moments before cold platinum bit into his shoulder, another shout of pain coming from his frail body as he struggled to hold himself above the thing without crushing it, the scream cracking in his throat. He felt it dig down a short ways before withdrawing, and the same cold, burning metal in the form of a bionic hand grabbed his other shoulder, lifting him off the ground with force. He let out garbled shrieks and pleads, his mouth filling with a coppery liquid that made him gag and spit, his brain felt like it was melting and dripping down his throat.

The bruising grip on his arm tugged again as he struggled for his life and to protect the thing, throwing his balance off and sending him to collide against a body of metal, burning every nerve in his body and sending him into a wild dizzying pain that he flinched away from and gagged as his eyes began rolling back, reaching for the thing sitting partially buried in ash while the edges of his vision faded away into darkness and his ears heard only static snow before the sludge of silence and nothing washed over him.

It was short lived as he was quickly ripped into consciousness by his body being torn from the grasp that had held him, the gunshot he'd heard before sounding again, but this time he spent no energy fighting the piercing pain that struck his numb mind, laying limply against the person who had taken him. He put up little fight while his insides swam like soup, and he soon found himself being pushed into a confined space, the ash and debris filled air giving way to clear, clean, pure oxygen.

He gasped at it in an almost crazed manor, clawing at his chest as he felt the tiny particles of silver, copper, and other metallic elements he'd inhaled slicing into his lungs as he breathed feverishly. He crawled quickly away from the small entrance from which another figure was crawling in, only to be grabbed and pulled away, another figure crawling inside quickly and closing a reflective sort of hatch over the opening.

His skin went wild with the burning of the platinum underneath him, causing him to thrash faintly from the pain to his over sensitive nerves. He heard gibberish words shouted to him, and shuddered at the familiar sound as his back arched off the floor and he quickly found himself lost to unconsciousness from the pain.

* * *

"Please- please I'll do anything!" He pleaded the shop owner, taking her hands desperately only to receive a disgusted sneer, and quickly letting go to hold his palms forward in surrender. "I'll pay rent, anything you want, you can have all the scrap off my ship. I just need something that's not platinum or titanium, anything." She looked at him in a concerned and slightly disturbed manor before sighing and lifting a hand with her palm facing him and turning to speak to another woman nearby.

He couldn't understand them, but instead turned to grip his sled tightly, glancing back at the two thin blankets of chiffon over another crepe blanket. He looked up as the other woman cautiously approached his ship, which he'd landed rather sloppily right outside the market, however he was in quite the rush. The woman put her palm against the cold metal and brushed the surface skeptically.

She turned and muttered something to the marketer, before entering the ship to look around for his mentioned scrap, mostly refined metals and other mineral. She soon returned with a small chunk of something silvery in an egg shape, seeing it almost made him chuckle. She turned it over in her hands in absolute infatuation, revealing a half egg shape with a center full of crystallized bismuth, reflected rainbows on its perfectly 90 degree uncut edges from the first sun glowing above them.

She held it out to him hopefully, to which he looked toward the other woman, handing her the bismuth egg crystal. "Have we got a deal??" She looked at it in surprise, before nodding fervently, and gesturing him to follow her with more mumbled words of her tongue. He was quickly led to a section of her market formed of what they'd come to know as 'impure' mineral objects.

After glancing around for a moment, he spotted a table with cubic limestone legs and a thick, flat, clean glass surface. He immediately pointed it out to her, and she nodded, walking over to help him lift it and move it to his ship. He quickly moved the table onto his ship along with his sled, and started it up. He hummed contentedly as it lit up and hummed, the thick humid air in his lungs quickly replaced with the clean filtered oxygen.

"Sally, what is our status." He stated more than he asked, reaching across the pilot bench to push two small red switches, corresponding electronic functions kicking into gear within the ship, whirs and clicks echoing somewhere as he moved to turn a grey nob above the switches, a faint woosh of ventilation kicking in and cooling the humid ship. He turned and walked towards the table, pulling it towards the front side of the ship and strapping it down where normally a portable medical table would go.

"Oxygen filters are functional, oxygen pumps are functional, ventilation system is starting up, ventilation system is functional, gradual cooling system is functional, aircraft has been cooled by 5%, aircraft has been cooled by 10%, aircraft has been cooled by 15%, cooling system is stabilized. Internal shields, functional, emergency dock shields have been damaged, temporary lock down on emergency dock in T minus... thirty seconds. Aircraft motors are rebooting in T minus twenty seconds, external humidity shields damaged around emergency dock, lock down is eminent in T minus nineteen seconds, estimated cause is forceful exposure to explosive temperatures, estimated to be a bomb or missile."

He nodded thoughtfully as he tugged on the last strap, snapping it into place and the floor around the table sinking a bit to lock it in place. He stood and dragged his sled over to the table, grunting at the ache in his left, before lightly wrapping his arms under the lump of fabric and heaving it up onto the table, pulling the cloth and material away from the figure underneath. "Sally, what are our vitals."

"Captain Mark E. Fischbach status- vitals, stabilized and undamaged. Minor burns on... left forearm, left shoulderblade, left calf, and left thy. Minor bruises forming on... the entirety of left torso, outward side of lower and upper left leg, left ankle, outward side of left upper arm, upper back and shoulders, and right cheekbone."

He nodded to himself as he stretched his back, standing straight and removing the baggy red scarf from his neck along with the oversized felt hat and grey overcoat. He threw each onto his sled, and soon followed by pulling the hem of his shirt over his head, tossing the dirt and sand ridden article with the rest. He poked and prodded his ribs and side painfully, fretting at the faint purple marks growing up his entire left. "And the other, analyse life form. Who are they."

The ship's feminine automated Artificial Intelligence voice clicked and hummed mechanically as it seemed to assess something, before quickly chiming with its information. "Unrecorded Passenger, legal name... unknown. There is no data. Alias... unknown. There is no data. Date of birth and age... Earth day unknown, Earth month unknown, Earth year unknown, estimated 25 Earth years- current planet 41 Pica years. Estimated gender... male. Species... indefinite. Origin... unknown. There is no data. Last planet of conscious contact, Bossotronio, status... developed. Last natural planetary contact origin, unknown. There is no data. Last natural planetary contact... organic septicide, suspected origin Bossotronio."

Mark's pulse jumped at the mention of septicide, and he immediately moved away from the figure on the table, shouting in a panicked voice. "Vitals of Unrecorded Passenger, conscious contact Bossotronio." Again the AI whirred and clicked, developing an analysis of the figure lying vulnerable of the glass pane.

"Unrecorded Passenger, conscious contact Bossotronio status- vitals, unstabilized and with minor damage, vitals under natural stabilization. Minor burns on... left of face, back of neck, back of arms, calves, lower back. Major burns in need of immediate treatment on... back from vertebrae L1 through Th2. Major burns under natural stabilization, treatment unnecessary. Head trauma likely, facial and internal bleeding detected, ear canals have received intense damage, ear canals and ear drum status is stabilizing. Lungs have received intense damage from inhaled metal particles and other debris, lungs are barely stabilized. Hyperoxia, or oxygen poisoning, appears to have occurred, however Unrecorded Passenger is processing pure Oxygen just fine. Skeletal structure damage has occurred, fractured left Humerus, dislocated left shoulder arm joint, fractured left ankle. No bruising eminent, skin conditions and burns stabilizing steadily."

He watched on curiously as Sally informed him on the state of this guest, still afraid to go near him. "So he's healing? What are the limitations of this natural occurrence, and is he septic?"

Another brief gap of silence filled by whirs and a quiet beep followed Mark's words while the AI assessed the other man's over all health. "Major burns will reduce to manageable and nonlethal states, skeletal damage is unable to stabilize further without being set and tended, any and all mental and physical brain trauma and damage is unclear and likely unstabilized. Analyzing Unrecorded Passenger, conscious contact Bossotronio for diagnosis of Septicemia... there is no bacterial or virus induced blood poisoning evident. Faint traces of Radiated Septicide detected in .5% cells, no damage of effects appear to be cause of Radiated Septicide. Running analysis on Radiated septicide found in .5% of blood cells... Analysis complete. Radiated Septicide appears organic, dormant, and noninfectious to life form contact, blood contamination is... indefinite. Cells are found harmless."

He sighed in relief, rubbing his palms over his face before running them through slightly longer-growing brown hair, smiling in appreciation up at the ceiling. "Thank you Sally, love you baby!" He called, before glancing at the stranger and returning to the control panel, flipping more switches and pressing more buttons before bringing up a hologram screen and entering coordinates into a panel. "Set her on cruise control, Sally, one more stop to go."

He tapped his fingers longingly on the sleek platinum console, brushing a hand through the hologram coordinate map to dismiss it. "And then... home. Not just the third ring of Miduna, but the real, my real, homeland." He sat heavily in his chair, before turning in it to look over to the glass table, where the sleeping passenger lay, his clothing was torn and covered in ash and metallic particle dust, showing only a fraction of what the body that wore it had been through.

He turned back to the window in front of him and was shocked to see the reflection of bright lightning blue eyes staring back at him, angry and scared like a cornered animal. Like a child on the coffee table when the floor is lava.


	2. First Firefly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He didn't intend to be a prisoner of war, and he certainly wasn't about to give up his freedom.

His heart felt like it would jump out of his rib cage as he spun and stumbled backwards into the control panel, catching the rage filled gaze of the man crouching on the glass table. The alien trembled with his anger and confusion, attempting to stand, only to let out a strangled cry in a tongue Mark had never heard before and crumbling onto the table's surface once more on his left side.

Mark attempted to approach the alien, who bared his teeth in either pain or warning. Taking a chance, he assumed it was in pain and took another step forward, only to be met with the creature yelling something at him and a second set of much sharper teeth snapping down in front of his human-like teeth. "Oh fuck..." Mark grumbled before stepping back and bringing his hands up in surrender, only for the man- or creature- to take it in offense.

It tried to get up again, attempting to back away again.

His ankle burned, his vision obscured by bright light unlike anything he'd seen before, surrounded by metals of white and silvery colors. It was all so blinding and irritating, but his vision eventually settled after some difficulty. When his vision focused he could see something approaching him and bared his teeth through his daze, the movement causing him only distress when it continued to move towards him. Supposing it didn't get the message he allowed his fangs to snap down and shouted. "Stay th' f'ck away from me!"

The creature brought its hands up, and he flinched in fear of it attacking him, remembering the gloves the humans wore that electrocuted anything they touched. He tried to get up, his fractured ankle lurching in pain as he tried to put distance between them, only to fall off the end of the table clumsily and shriek in pain as his bare back touched platinum, burning every nerve under his skin.

The human rushed towards him and grabbed his arms, yanking him up onto the table, the cold surface soothing his nerves as he lay on it. He took a deep shuddering breath and shut his eyes tight as it said something to him in a deep soothing voice, it only served to frustrate him more that he couldn't understand the words as a warm hand held his wrist, likely checking his pulse.

He tried to calm his mind by taking deep breaths, but even the air was different here, and his entire body was shaking in his anxiety. His eyes flashed open when he felt a sharp pain on his wrist and warmth began spreading through his veins, he tried to sit up only to be hit with a wave of drowsiness. He fell back onto the able with a quiet thunk and his eyes rolled back as he passed out from the sedatives in his system, hearing a last bit of the humans unrecognizable speech.

"Forget that one stop, Sally, take us home- back to Earth."

It'd been forever since he'd been to this part of the universe- the Milky Way, that is. He almost forgot how beautiful it was, staring out the thick window into the void and the twisting, swirling stars and particles that formed cloud like shapes in the darkness. In a few hours, they'll reach the Origin System, the Solar system where Humans were born, the miracle of life. He almost sneered at that thought, some kind of miracle they had turned out to be, bringing greed, murder, and genocide across oceans-!! How... 'great' of them.

He huffed, falling back into the pilot chair, and turning to lean the side of his face against it. Out of the corner of his eye he caught movement, and looked over to the alien sitting in the middle of his ship, its chest was rising and falling as it breathed, its face completely void of any emotion. It still shocked him how human it looked, with pale skin and dark eyelashes, dark facial hair and pink lips. Even its bright blue eyes, what had drawn him to it the first time he saw it, they reminded him of his old friend Felix. If it weren't for the vibrant green hair and the fangs it had earlier displayed in aggression, he could have been passed off as human easily, though he couldn't be sure the hair was naturally that hue.

He'd have to wake it up eventually, he knew, and find some way to get through to it. Language barriers were part of the reason the human race took to violence before negotiation, negotiation took so much longer and with a language barrier as strong as theirs it was even harder to come to terms with another race. Especially this race it seemed, since they were almost as bold and ambitious. They did try negotiation, at first, but the planet's inhabitants wanted nothing of their antics.

Many gifts were sent to the planet's leaders, one of them he'd delivered himself- technology among more organic things. Though most of it was made from platinum, an element that the planet and its lifeforms found toxic, killing flora, poisoning fauna, and burning their more civilized species to the touch. It was like acid, which was extremely unusual considering it's solid as a metal, but they hadn't much time to find out as the planet's leaders took offense and immediately called for war.

Mark wished they hadn't, if only for their own sake. The human empire would drive them into complete genocide, leaving their planet as nothing but dust, and then returning many decades later to contaminate the soil and environment with plants and such from other systems. He had expected to be saving lives in the war, on both sides of the fight, when he started training in the medical field during his trip from the Milky Way to Miduna, the new three-ringed star system that he'd found permanent residence. He had hoped to stop there to pick things up for the trip, and to contact Amy.

She was bound to be worried, he had promised to make a call some time within the past month to discuss her plans for moving forward in the intergalactic fashion industry. He'd have to introduce her to Suzy at some point, though he knew Amy's interests were more towards military uniform. Experience, of course, from being her model a couple of times. She had often told him he looked more like a soldier than a medical aid, and he wouldn't lie, the uniforms she designed made him look damn good. He'd just never get to see the uniforms formally worn for their purpose.

He observed the alien for a couple of hours before heading to sleep. With Amy and Suzy on mind, he made a note to himself on the hologram screen above the control panel to make the call on Earth if he could get the authorization for it, and then reclined in the pilot chair and pulled secondary straps over his legs and torso for extra security in the case that something went haywire or they hit some turbulence.

* * *

When he awoke, the alien was sat silently at the edge of the glass table, having figured out itself how to undo the safety buckles that had held him to it. Its bright blue eyes gauged him cautiously, but curiously. Mark slowly undid the straps holding him securely, and stood, careful not to make sudden movements that might set it off again. He'd already done so much damage to it just by inconsideration and ignorance. They studied each other for what seemed like ages, neither making a move towards the other, until the alien seemed to be bored of the encounter, and pushed itself onto its feet on top of the glass table.

It was such a strange place, it took a lot of adjusting when he came to again- the bright lights were just as blinding and disorienting as the first time. The human man had secured himself seemingly to sleep, and hadn't moved since Sean had awoken besides the rising of his rib cage and the occasional stir, so he took the time to examine himself and the injuries he'd received. There was little he could do besides wait, as his natural recovery did its work, though it seemed to have gone into action almost immediately as his fractured ankle was already little more than bruised now. A miracle, since he'd always been slow to recover as a child, and had experienced so much trouble in his training that he'd turned to political work instead of what he'd originally intended.

In the time he waited for the human to wake, Sean learned that the entire ship was build from Platinum, and the glass table was his only shield from it. The burning bright lights had no visible "off" switch, so he spent most of his time investigating the area- from afar- squinting or shielding his eyes with his hands. He'd begun to form a plan with what he could find in the near vicinity, he learned the nearest emergency door was as easy to open as any at home and would be his best option if he could get the human on the other side of the table when they landed. Sean was sure, if he dashed right for it, he could push and twist the latch in a single motion and slip out before the human could sedate him again. He could use the straps he'd removed from himself earlier to wrap his feet, and avoid damage to them. Sean just hoped that wherever they landed, the ground was not the same poisonous substance as the ship itself.

He spent the rest of the time he had until the human woke listening to the humming of the ship and observing, watching it breath and mumble. It looked a lot like him, it had darker skin and a stronger build, but the anatomy seemed the same. Sean expected the human race to be horribly alien, but then he also knew that he himself and his "parents" were part of a project designed to make the future generations more human-like, to possibly camouflage within their ranks. He thought about the history he'd learned about his own species, and the humans that had shown up on their planet long before humans had mastered intergalactic travel, how they'd brought language such as the one he now speaks and technology like the medicines and machines they had. Sean wondered quietly if this human was related to his ancestors, maybe distantly, but was interrupted as it roused.

The human stared back at him, and Sean matched his gaze unwavering. Brown eyes, something you never saw in his own species, but most humans had them. It looked nervous, and he could tell by its movements and breath that it was being cautious- probably for its own sake. Though through inspecting the ship he already knew this man was not a soldier, and probably had no means to harm him other than the medical drugs that he likely wouldn't waste on Sean. He considered for what seemed like hours as the time ticked by, how could he advance the interactions? Maybe learn something about where they were going, so he'd know what he was facing when he got there and leaped for the door. Sean wasn't too keen on jumping out the door to be met with the guns of many trained soldiers.

He eventually got bored of the human watching him, of holding the gaze, and moved from his spot in a way of letting the human know this thought. It seemed surprised to see Sean stand, and he remembered that hours ago his ankle had been incapable of holding his weight, and the human was expecting the same now. He rolled his ankle, to prove there was no pain, and looked back at the human for a reaction. It had moved a hand into its hair, and was moving its fingers through it thoughtfully. A moment later, it walked towards him. Sean tried to brace himself from the urge to react at the approach, and to stop himself from shuffling away he sat down- it was against his first instinct, but to get away he'd need trust.

It reached its hand towards him, and Sean watched it in confusion, unsure of what it wanted. He didn't have anything to give it, so what did it want?

"Mark," It spoke, followed by some gibberish. Confused, Sean tried to best adjust the word to his own language, and searched the skin on his arms and anywhere else he could see, trying to find the 'mark' he spoke of. Seeing nothing, Sean looked back to the man with furrowed brows. "What?" A horrendous, obnoxious sound erupted from it's lungs, and Sean scrambled backwards on the glass table away from him in surprise. Was it- it was... laughing at him.

It seemed to notice Sean's fear and try to stifle itself, trying again to rephrase what it had said before. This time, it pointed to itself and carefully pronounced the word "Mark". It took a bit of time for him to realize what it was saying- the human's name was Mark. He tried his best to parrot the name, but it came out wrong in his voice, he couldn't make it sound quite the same. The man seemed surprised, and soon later ecstatic and hysteric- running to it's chair and the ship's panel, pulling up virtual screens and searching through documents of words.

Mark couldn't believe what he'd just heard, moreover, he shouldn't believe what he'd just heard. It wasn't that it had been able to say his name, he knew a creature of it's species would be extremely intelligent, it was the way it had said it. It had the accent of a human language- Irish, the language it spoke was Irish- or, at least he hoped it was. Mark ran to the control panel, pulling up screens upon screens, searching for an Irish dictionary. The language wasn't popular, and had been dying for a long time, but the accent was everywhere on Earth. Ireland was among one of many countries that began to claim land on Earth once the larger powers left for more secure territories in the skies, and it had grown nearly triple in size and population as it took over some of what used to be the United Kingdom.

This was a breakthrough, and he was not about to squander it. After thoroughly searching through many documentations of pronunciation and grammar, Mark turned to the alien, and spoke to him for the first time in words Mark knew he would understand. "Dia duit, cad is ainm duit?"

Sean looked on, shocked for a moment, as he understood Mark for the first time. How? How could this human know the language he spoke? Arguably, this "Mark" spoke it poorly, but... it had somehow learned, in only moments, words that took him years as a child to hone. As he broke out of his shock, he realized where the human was standing, on the right of the table. He quickly pulled the straps on his feet tight and winced as he leaped off the table onto the platinum, making a wild run for the emergency door to the left of the table. He could hear Mark shout in panic behind him, but didn't hesitate a moment as he grabbed the latch and in one motion pushed and twisted it, the door falling open under him and sending him rolling to the ground.

Tiny blades of green lashed at his skin, familiar in a way most unusual, and he struggled to push the nostalgia to the back of his mind. His mind felt stunned, his body filled with adrenaline, and he pushed himself to his feet and ran. The world around him was as dark and enchanting as the sleep cycles back at his home, but even more beautiful- planets and stars glistened in the emptiness above, unobstructed by the atmosphere, and everything he saw was lush and colorful, touched and tinted with the inky darkness.

Only when the towering brown towers like the foam forests back home had engulfed him did he come to slow, Mark's shouts drowned by his adrenaline and heartbeat had fallen out of earshot, and he now crossed into an entirely new world. He made his way through the overgrowth, so much more... straight, and perfect than the flora back home. He traced his fingers over soft, crumbly textures of the brown towers. They crawled with the evidence of tiny life, and many were spotted with other flora growths, green and soft. As he stepped out of the brush into another patch of open space, Sean cringed at the squish of moist goo between his toes. It was disgusting, green and brown, and stalks of green with brown bulbs stuck from the tiny... pool of gross... in patches, along with tall, sturdy stems of grass. His attention was drawn by something bright.

He'd only heard myths and legends of the things, said to once have lived on his own planet before the process of natural selection killed them off, and now for the first time he felt like this world in it's beauty and horror was nothing but a dream world, his fear and adrenaline subsiding. The awe-worthy flying bug possessed the most striking glow he'd ever seen, golden and pure and burning unlike any of the human lights that were so piercing or any of the bioluminescents of the foam forests that were so cold. He reached, and it settled on his hand, and he gently cupped it with the other. It felt right, this first firefly, it was the first any of his species may have ever seen.

And it was _his_ first firefly to see, and to have, and to remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'm back- sort of?  
> I'm hoping to update chapters more regularly, so that's exciting. Especially for this one, since I've such big ideas for it
> 
> Oh, and thank you for reading!


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